Chocolate Pretzel Turkey bags

This was a fun project to do with my boys. We made these pretzel turkeys for their teachers (school and church). I was inspired by THESE pretzel turkey cups that my sister made. Since were were giving these away, I thought a bag would be better than a cup!

First step, dip the pretzels in chocolate. I used the Honey Wheat Braided Twists (instead of the pretzel rods), if only because I like the taste of these pretzels better ;)

I used red, orange, and yellow Wilton chocolate melts. I gave each boy a small cup with melted chocolate and showed them how to dip them. They also had a few lectures on ‘not licking the chocolate or their fingers until they were done’ and ‘only eat the broken ones’. Man they had a hard time with those rules!!

When they were done with the pretzels, and while the chocolate was drying, we worked on the bags. I printed out a coloring picture of a turkey head on sticker paper, and cut them out with my Silhouette. I also printed out a simple “I’m thankful for you” sticker that they could write their name on. So they worked on coloring those.

     

Stick the head sticker to one side of the clear cellophane bags and the “I’m thankful for you” (or “Happy Thanksgiving”) sticker on the other side, and fill with different colored “feathers” (the chocolate dipped pretzels), and tie it up.

The best part of this project was watching the boys hand them to their teachers! So stinkin adorable!!

‘Christmas Present’ coin banks

I recently made some super cute ‘Christmas Present’ banks for my boys, and they (ages 4.5 & 2.5) are about to get their first lesson in saving & spending wisely!

The idea behind it is to earn money (by doing work around the house!) and save it in their present bank until it’s time to buy Christmas Presents for each other. They do have piggy banks, which are collecting quite the savings, but those are not to be opened or touched until we, their parents, deem it necessary! But these Christmas present banks are reserved for the sole purpose of buying presents for Christmas!

I know my boys are still very young, but when it comes down to it, money is a big deal (unfortunately). They love finding money & holding it. They love being able to buy candy in a candy machine. But more importantly, there are many lessons to be learned with money; instant gratification or long-term happiness, debt or savings, etc. I don’t think there is a “too young” when it comes to learning how to treat money?

Not only money (and saving) but the act of giving on Christmas. I hope these boys, with the money they earn and save over the next while, will find joy in the act of giving. No, it doesn’t have to be store bought, but there is a lot to be said about a little child that can give up hard earned, saved money in order to give a gift, especially to their sibling [trust me, I have 7 siblings]!

I hope that giving gifts on Christmas (bought, homemade or as simple and kind as a hug) will become something they look forward to every year, and all the time for that matter.

And with that, here is my ‘Christmas Present’ coin bank HOW-TO --->

{what you need}

• wood (I used pine and my dimensions are approximately 5 1/2”W x 7 3/4”H x 3/4”D –and- 7 1/2”W x 6”H x 3/4”D)
• scroll saw
• sander
• drill (handheld or press)
• plexiglass (picture frame quality)
• sharpie
• Dremel (or you can use a handheld drill)
• spray paint (colors you want & clear coat)
• masking tape
• tiny little screws (smallest I could find at the hardware store)
• screwdriver

Okay, lets get started! [Beware: lots of cell phone pictures, taken at night…didn’t want to get my good camera full of saw dust!]

First I drew out a couple sketches of what I wanted the banks to look like. Not the best quality picture, but you get the idea (if you can see the lines!). I drew it the exact size I wanted it & then measured about an inch for the width of the bank walls.

I cut out those sketches & used them as a stencil for the actual bank. I like to tape it down on the wood & use a little bit of spray paint to make a quick outline. You could always just trace it thought. Take it to the scroll saw & get to cutting! Make sure the bottom edge of the bank is flat – as in, it is level and can sit on the counter.

To cut out the inside of the bank, I drilled a hole (using the drill press, but you could use a handheld drill), then I had to take out the scroll saw blade, put it through the hole I just made & tighten it back up. Then I was able to cut out the inside block.

Next came the plexiglass cutting. I laid a piece of plexiglass on the cut bank and made sure it was about 1/4” bigger than the inside of the bank walls. It was just a hand drawn line, and I made one for each side of the bank. Next, I took them to the scroll saw & cut them out too.

Then came the coin slot. I REALLY wanted a coin slot at the top, like a regular bank, but because of the height of the bow on top of the present, it made for a very difficult process. I’ll have to collaborate with Grant (my husband) to figure out a better way to do this part, but I’m not really sure there is an easier way to do it due to the width of the wood I was drilling through. What I did was, using the drill press, drilled multiple holes (slightly thicker than the width of a nickel and just over the length of a quarter). Even then, I was only able to get through about 3/4 of the wood.

The rest of the process was tackled with the Dremel (using the same drill bit). [**By the way, Back Friday is coming up and that is when we got this Dremel, years ago. Totally worth it!!]. I did some drilling from the bottom of the slot (or where I guessed the bottom would be). It doesn’t look pretty from the bottom, but the coin slot works!

  

After that drilling endeavor the painting began. I always use Rustoleum 2x coverage spray paint (primer included). I painted the ‘ribbon’ parts first, on both sides of the presents (drying in between). These colors are Apple Red & Sky Blue.

Once dry (24 hours-ish later) I used masking tape to take when I wanted the “ribbon” to stay & covered the bows. Then painted the rest of the presents in the other colors – Meadow Green & Deep Blue (Rustoleum).

Almost done!!

With the plexiglass I cut previously, I put them on the present & drilled holes through, and barely into the wood, for the tiny little screws.

 

Screw on the plexiglass & DONE!

These boys are beyond excited about their new present banks! Now it’s time to start earning money!!! Which is also great, they are so much more helpful around the house now ;)

 

Sunshine in a box

I’ve seen something like this pinned on Pinterest quite a bit, and I decided to send my friend a Box of Sunshine. It was to make up for missing her birthday, her son’s upcoming birthday, and the upcoming birth of her 2nd child (yes, I’m quite the slacker of a friend!!).

What I included in this Box of Sunshine:

• Duck onsie (gender neutral)
• Yellow tissue paper
• Yellow book, “Big Dot, Little Dog” (for new baby)
• Yellow hot wheels truck (for birthday boy)
• Yellow star cookie cutter
• Goo Gone
• Yellow star post-it notes
• Chocolate money

More of what I put in the Box of Sunshine:

• Charleston Chew
• Burts Bees Chapstick
• Wet Ones
• Yellow Sharpie
• Duckie bath toy
• Yellow bow tie (for birthday boy)
• Yellow Sunshine card
• Yellow stickers

And the rest of what was in the Box of Sunshine:

• The yellowest Target gift card
• Yellow sugar sprinkles
• Dove chocolate (Carmel filling)
• Yellow snack cups (for the kiddos)
• Lemon Drops, old fashioned hard candy

And then I packaged it all up. Such a fun yellow box!!

It was pretty fun shopping for YELLOW things, centered around her birthday, her son, & a new baby. Most of what I found was at Target and the Dollar Store. I think I’m a fan of themed boxes now ;) Hopefully it brightened her day and made up for all the stuff I have, and am now, missing in her life.

  

‘Show Love’ – wedding gift

My littlest brother got married not too long ago and I decided to make them something custom and really personalized. I’m a huge fan of personalized décor, so why not force it on everyone else, particularly my family ;)

I made this same sort of sign for my bedroom and just copied it for my bro & new sister-in-law, but of course I used their picture instead of ours!

My previous post about this “Show Love” quote goes into more detail about why I really like this William Shakespeare quote. I know everyone has their own thoughts & opinions about W.S., so maybe my brother thought it was weird when I handed it to him and he read it for the first time (I could tell by the look on his confused face). But as his older sister, I know better and he WILL like it (enter wicked step-sister laugh).

The sign in my room is just vinyl directly on the wall. We own our house and I know we will be here for a while yet. My brother, on the other hand, is still in college and will be moving many {many, many, and many more} times, I’m sure. I did. I didn’t know how to stay put when I was a college student. I was in a new place every year I went back after summer. Heck, I didn’t even stay at the same school longer than 2 years.

I digress.

I used some wood that Grant milled and went through the process of creating their picture. I used Power Point & Silhouette studio for this process. I took one of their engagement pictures, edited it down (like my other post describes in more detail) and traced their figures. It took a while, but it didn’t take as long as weeding!

I cut it out in vinyl to use as a stencil, so I had to weed all the little pieces of their picture (which was a P.A.I.N.). Then I placed in on the nicely sanded & routered board, stained it and finished it with a clear coat.

I love using stain on natural wood because you can still see the grain through it. I’m a huge fan of natural wood. I grew up working on projects with my dad in the garage and shop, so natural wood will always remind me of him. Stain on the wood usually makes the grain pop, which is another favorite of mine.

Someday my brother will appreciate this (if he doesn’t already).

“DAD” hoodie

This was a very personalized gift, inspired by this little guy, and what he wrote too. In the fall, I took a pictures of how he wrote DAD on the sidewalk. I thought it was so cute and had to remember it for a project later on. Cue Christmas (or Father’s day, but our case was Christmas)!

For little G’s Christmas present to Grant, I had him write another ‘DAD’ and put it into the Silhouette Studio & made the DAD hoodie. Simple, fast & a very personalized memory as a gift!

I could have had little G write it with a sharpie or fabric pen directly on the hoodie, but this way it will stay forever and there wasn’t a chance of an accident or wild imagination of a little boy. I pictured him writing dad, then scribbling it out and trying something else. Then he would draw a face & his name with dots all over and some crazy scribbling. You get the picture. Maybe it would have been cute, having the extremely personalized touch, but I opted for the cleaner approach!

{what I used}
  *Blank hoodie from Wal-Mart ($10)
  *Teal heat press vinyl (about $1)
  *Handwritten DAD (priceless)

Personalized Love Note home décor {wedding/anniversary gift}

My little brother recently got married and I decided to make them something really personalized. I snooped for some love notes they wrote each other while dating (okay, I asked him for them!). Something short & sweet. Really mushy sweet. These are what he sent me, perfect!

 

I started by importing them into the Silhouette Studio. Then I traced them and adjusted the layout, but only enough to fit them on an 8” x 8” board. I also used the “offset” function to make the letters a little thicker. I cut the love notes out of ’middle grey’ vinyl.

Then it was a matter of the boards for the signs. I cut 8” x 8” boards, sanded them, routered the edges, put keyholes in the back (for hanging) & painted them white. Once they were prepped and ready, I applied the vinyl. (There is also a third 8” x 8” block, reserved for a picture of the Bountiful temple in white vinyl with their anniversary date. My brother is still working on drawing the temple for me!)

I gave them to my newest sister-in-law at her bridal shower. They were a hit & unique to all the other gifts she received that night!